On the 15th of May, 2017, the Nigerian Premium Times reported that the Nigerian Ports Authority in collaboration with Dangote and Flour Mills has decided to raise precisely 4.3 Billion Naira towards the reconstruction of the port access roads within the Apapa axis.
The present development of the railway system in Nigeria by the present Minister of Transport which in turn will serve as a revival plan for the previously inactive Nigeria Railway Cooperation is another recent development that will lay out a successive path to a well-structured port facility in Nigeria.
However, despite these developments, Nigeria has not met up with their requirements, obligations and responsibilities as a coastal state. Neither have they taken proper advantage of the economic leverage available to coastal states that provide transit services to neighbouring states that don't have coastal seas or access to their own territorial waters. This writeup defines what a Land Locked State(LLS) is, what a Port State/Coastal State is and where Nigeria seems to be missing the point in the developmental incentives involved in the course of developing an efficient port access infrastructure.
PORT/LANDLOCKED STATES
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, and for shelter from wind and waves. Another major advantage brought to a port with efficient port access is the international strength and political power gained by offering support to neighbouring landlocked states who do not have access to the seas but have to rely on the services rendered by the port state in order to receive goods in large quantities and to foster international trade ties with other countries in the world. This is a powerful monopoly strategy that cannot be delegated but it all depends on how well the port state utilises this advantage.
There are 16 Landlocked States/countries in Africa generally characterized by their lack of a sea coast namely: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Among these, Chad, Niger, Zambia and Zimbabwe are over 2, 000 km from the nearest sea coast. While the european counterparts like Switzerland which has direct access from Basel to the North Sea via the Rhine, African landlocked states are disadvantaged by lack of navigable waters and poor infrastructure.
The problem of LLS is a matter of national survival. Developing LLS need access to the sea through transit states for their transport and trade, as a crucial matter of national importance. Part X of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea establishes the right of free access to and from the sea for landlocked States. The convention is regarded as the UN's biggest contribution to the cause of LLS. Significantly, reciprocity is no longer required as a condition of transit. The rights of LLS to the living resources of the exclusive economic zones of coastal states of the same region or sub-region is provided for in Article 69.
It has become very detrimental to the integrity and outright standing of Nigeria as a coastal state to not only provide for efficient port access infrastructure within the country but also to extend these services to the neighbouring states up north as Nigeria is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and is therefore bound by international law to provide services as a coastal and a transit port.
This could also serve as a huge revenue generating strategy for the Nigerian economy especially at a time when the market structure is literally struggling to survive. From the UNCLOS, we can tell that the rights provided under Article 125 (1) seems not an absolute right and it should be considered along with sub article 2 and 3 of the same article. Article 125 (3) states that ‘transit States, in the exercise of their full sovereignty over their territory, shall have the right to take all measures necessary to ensure that the rights and facilities provided for in this Part for land-locked States shall in no way infringe their legitimate interests'.
For example, for being placed in an appropriate geographical condition, the Islamic Republic of Iran benefits from transit advantages. With expansion of a reliable and efficient transportation network, the benefits has been optimally evidenced to have elevated the exchange revenues and has promoted the strategic condition of Iran in the region.
THE NIGERIAN SITUATION
The Nigerian government is in dire need of diversification in investments, trade and international treaties which will be taken seriously and not just ratified, assented to and dumped aside. Imagine the emancipation of wealth waiting to occur if only infrastructure alone were to be brought to par with their standards of operation.
There are government agencies in this country lying in waste and waiting on developments of infrastructure in order to reach their apex in the delivery of services. The Nigerian Shippers Council for instances was solely created to attend to the affairs of shippers all over the country. In order to achieve this, there are branch offices of the Shippers Council situate at the 6 geo-political zones of the country yet their activities have died down because the inland container depots are in dilapidated and non existent conditions.
The inland container depots are supposed to be "inland ports" where Nigerians who are to receive shipments by sea can go and receive their goods from the geopolitical zone closest to them and not have to go all the way to the ports in Lagos, Calabar or Warri ports and the likes. If this system were applicable, Lagos wouldn't be so congested and the inland container depots would comfortably provide job opportunities and rapid developments where they are situated.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The Nigerian government through the federal ministry of Transport should invest largely in rebuilding the infrastructure of the ports facilities, the roads and railway lines. There should be a railway line each that connects all six geopolitical zones in the country.
2. The federal ministry of transport should move to create and MAINTAIN a National Liner, a National trucking system (or a public-private partnership in this field) and an inland container depot in all the six geopolitical zones in the country.
3. There should be an investment put in place to provide for cargo moving trains which will be different from the passenger moving trains; all divided into oil cargo, grain cargo and other types of cargo respectively.
4. The Nigerian government should revisit the UNCLOS ratification and draft a legal framework outlining the responsibilities expected of them by virtue of the legal standing of the convention.
5. A TOTAL redraft of the Nigeria Shippers Council Act (1973) is highly needed ASAP which will serve the need of shippers all over the country and focus on creating proactive measures that will remain relevant and applicable in years to come.
